Conduct a situation analysis

Feeding practices and behaviours are just some of the many factors that influence infant and young child nutrition, which can impact both health and survival.  

However, an IYCF campaign cannot be designed with the goal of “improving the behaviours that parents and caregivers practice when feeding infants and young children”. This goal is far too broad and includes too many possible behaviours, practices or actions. No single campaign can address all aspects of IYCF – it’s impossible!

A situation analysis will help you and your team explore and analyse current IYCF behaviours in your country. As you learn about behaviours, recent IYCF interventions and policy priorities, you will narrow the focus of the campaign to one or two behaviours that are specific and relevant to your primary audience. These selected behaviours will become your campaign priorities and help guide strategy and messaging.

Four steps to achieve a comprehensive situation analysis:

1. Review data on IYCF indicators: Using the data available for your location, identify which two to four IYCF behaviours should be reviewed as possible focus areas for your campaign. 
2. Evaluate your IYCF behavioural priorities: Using these two to four selected IYCF behaviours, gather information about policy priorities and current and recent interventions related to IYCF in your area. Designing your campaign to complement policy priorities or other interventions may help to prevent overlap, increase reach and engagement, and realise other benefits, including government sponsorship, public access airtime, and more. Finally, choose one or two behaviours to be the focus of your campaign.
3. Identify your behavioural goal: Once you have identified the focus of your campaign, you will need to set out your programme goal. It should summarise the change in behaviour you are hoping to achieve with your campaign activities. 
4. Choose a programme name to summarise the focus of your campaign. This will help you to communicate and inform others about the programme and campaign priorities.

A situation analysis tool is available and can be used to select behavioural priorities for your campaign.